RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil faces the dilemma of whether to build big hydroelectric dams, weighing the need to keep up with the demand for greater electricity generating capacity -- to avoid a repeat of the 2001 energy crisis -- and the fears of environmental and social harm.

The Belo Monte Hydroelectric Center on the Xingú River, a project halted due to the lack of environmental authorization but whose leaders seek to start up again, is a case that underscores the controversy.

The dam would flood 400 square km of land in the east Amazon, pushing some 2,000 peasant families from their homes. However, it could add 11,182 megawatts to the existing national generating potential of 82,400 megawatts.

Hydroelectric dams have flooded more than 34,000 square km in Brazil, mostly in the Amazon, forcing the displacement of 200,000 families, reports the Movement of People Affected by Dams, which favors the development of alternative energy sources.

CARACAS - The drought hitting Venezuela set off a debate with religious nuances when the state-run Parks Institute decided to limit the gathering of palm fronds on Avila mountain, which separate Caracas from the Caribbean coast, a traditional activity in the days before Catholic Holy Week.

Since 1770, prior to Holy Week, members of the Palms of Chacao brotherhood collected palm fronds to be blessed on Palm Sunday and distributed among churchgoers.

But the Parks Institute banned the practice, saying that the drought has decimated the Ceroxylon ceriferum palm, the type the brothers seek for its leaves.

The Institute has authorized the gathering of up to 500 palms, versus the thousand the brotherhood wants. A court will have to settle the dispute.

SANTIAGO - The Chilean government has finalized rules to protect water from contaminating emissions, expediting regulation on water courses and aquifers, reports the National Environment Commission (Conama).

The aim is to control the waste that filters into the water sources through the ground.

The regulations are vital for using the underground reservoirs to supply water to cities in the northern Chilean deserts, say officials.

The first regulation to improve water quality was enacted in Chile in 1988, establishing limits on the level of industrial contaminants that could be discharged into the sewage system. In 2001, the level of liquid waste allowed into rivers and the ocean began to be regulated.

HAVANA - Scientists will provide environmental education in the eastern Humboldt National Park to improve the living conditions of the residents of this important preserve of Antilles flora and fauna.

The experts, convened by the Cuban group Nature and Man, will teach the local population about how to gather food without harming the ecosystem.

The project, with support from the non-governmental Dutch Committee for the Protection of Nature, includes studies of sustainable use of resources in the park, the largest and most complex of the Cuban System of Natural Protected Areas.

Within its 700 square km, the park holds the greatest plant density of the Cuban archipelago. It is the least explored area of the country and in its mountains, plateaus, rivers, plains and corral reefs there are 905 endemic flora species.

MANAGUA - The Saltworks Association of Nicaragua and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have signed an agreement to ensure the addition of iodine -- a nutritional necessity -- to 95 percent of the salt consumed in this Central American country.

Gustavo Castillo, president of the association, told Tierramérica that adding iodine to salt for human and animal consumption, as well as for use in tanneries, was made possible by UNICEF support.

The UN agency backs such programs around the world to fight problems like the deterioration of physical development, mental retardation or cerebral damage in children, caused by the lack of this element in the body.

Nicaragua produces between 1.2 million and 1.5 million quintals of salt yearly along its Pacific coast.

For the past three years, Nicaragua has been mixing potassium iodide and calcium carbonate with salt. The new agreement guarantees the supply of potassium iodide, which is produced only in Chile.

GUATEMALA CITY - Some 4,000 hectares of Los Esclavos and María Linda river basins, in central and southern Guatemala, will be reforested by the ministries of Agriculture and of Energy and Mines.

The project seeks to benefit 85 communities in the departments of Guatemala, El Progreso and Jutiapa, Fredy López, spokesman for the National Electrification Institute (INDE), told Tierramérica.

Electricity-generating plants are installed on both rivers.

"The idea is to help the small coffee growers so that instead of planting maize, they plant fruit and lumber trees in order to improve water retention when it rains," López explained. Through a trusteeship, INDE will finance the effort.

Deforestation has reduced the flow of the two rivers, cutting into the generating capacity of the hydroelectric plants of Aguacapa and Los Esclavos.

TEGUCIGALPA - Residents of Valle de Siria, in the central department of Francisco Morazán, suffer skin diseases and respiratory illnesses, which they blame on the mining activities of the U.S.-based transnational Entre Mares.

Juan Almendares Bonilla, a doctor and environmentalist, told Tierramérica that 40 percent of the local population -- around 50,000 people -- has rashes due to the cyanide that contaminates the area's water supplies.

Entre Mares set up operations in Honduras four years ago, mining for gold and other metals.

Catholic cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez has joined the protests against the mining company that began three years ago.

Despite the opposition of residents and environmentalists, the government last month extended the company's mining permit. There are nine communities in Valle de Siria that rely on the forest and agriculture for their livelihood.